Doubts have emerged over teenager William Gadoury claim’s that he has discovered a long-lost ancient Mayan city deep within a dense Central American forest using a combination of old-world astronomy and ultra-modern technology.

The inquisitive Quebec youngster claimed he had analysed 22 Mayan constellations and realised that the Mayans aligned their 117 cities with the positions of the stars.

It was the first time a researcher had made a direct correlation between the stars and the locations of the Mayan cities, the Journal de Montreal reported. William said he had realised that there was one star in another constellation that didn’t appear to have a corresponding city.

However, some sceptics are casting doubt on his story, including David Stuart, an anthropologist from The Mesoamerica Center-University of Texas at Austin.

Mr Stuart also achieved fame for his Mayan discoveries as a teenager.

He posted on his Facebook page: “This current news story of an ancient Maya city being discovered is false. I was trying to ignore it (and the media inquiries I’ve been getting) but now … I feel I ought to say something.

“The whole thing is a mess – a terrible example of junk science hitting the internet in free-fall.

“The ancient Maya didn’t plot their ancient cities according to constellations. Seeing such patterns is a rorschach process, since sites are everywhere, and so are stars.”

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“The square feature that was found on Google Earth is indeed man-made, but it’s an old fallow cornfield, or milpa.”

WILLIAM’S THEORY

William Gadoury of the Académie Antoine-Manseau in Joliette in Quebec. Photo / Supplied

If William’s theory and calculations are correct, that would place the missing city in a remote coastal location on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

Using satellite images from the Canadian Space Agency and Google Earth maps, William zeroed in on the precise location – and a pyramid and about thirty ancient buildings were spotted, partially hidden, in the dense forest.

“There are linear features that would suggest there is something underneath that big canopy,”